Buckhead Part Two -- The Kroger Door

If you click on the image to the left of this article, you'll be able to read a sign in the doorway of the Peachtree Street entrance to the Kroger in South Buckhead near the Amtrak station. This sign sums up a screwy set of priorities regarding the significance of their location, a confusion about what constitutes "front" and what constitutes "rear" in an urban setting, and also needlessly creates a pattern of hostility to pedestrian store traffic.

This doorway faces Peachtree Street, the most prominent and well known road in the entire Atlanta region. Logically the blocked and locked door is at the "front of the store". Wide sidewalks, with very nice detailing were installed on the front of this row of buildings. There is little reason for Kroger to frustrate their customers who arrive by foot. Of the three times I've arrived at this Kroger by foot, I've had to walk around the store to the area they call the "front of store" twice. The ample sidewalks end before the pedestrian reaches the "front of the store", so the pedestrian walks through
typical suburban strip mall driveway and parking lot.

This Kroger is in a row of buildings which also includes a Borders book store. To Border's credit, their door on Peachtree is open, and last night when I visited it was well utililized. In a number of ways I appreciate Kroger. Of all the major grocery chains they were the one who tended to keep stores open in urban Atlanta during the declining years of the 1970s and 1980s. They also built probably the most pedestrian and public transit friendly store of any type in Atlanta in recent years across from City Hall on Central Avenue.

But the management at Kroger needs to realize that despite the apparent inconvenience to the Kroger management of covering that door, it's worth it, both in terms of service to their pedestrian customers who arrive off Peachtree Street, and in general respect for the urban environment.

I'm going to politely contact the Kroger management about this, and I hope others will as well. And I'd encourage Atlantans to visit that row of stores and express to the managers how nice and relaxing it is to be able to stroll into stores from the wide beautiful sidewalk which was provided as part of this development.

Comments

[Caleb Racicot]

You must have been there at night (after 7:00 PM). During the day the front door is open - I use it often when I visit my allergist up the street.

In all honesty, I can't blame them for locking it at night. Peachtree has no on-street parking; it is a car sewer; and the store design (which they inherited when they bought out Harris Teeter) places most registers at the back (their idea of front?). Idealy, the registers would have been at the side of the store, with a long vestibule connecting both the parking and the street. This would have allowed only one cash out point for the store and would have treated peds and drivers equally. The new Publix at Midtown Grand on Peachtree Place and Spring Street will do just this - the Public at Lenox Marketplace already does it. As currently designed, a cash register in the middle of the dairy section is a problem at slower hours.

Perhaps we (as Atlanta urbanists) could encourage them to keep the door open until at least 9:00 PM, to coincide with adjacent businesses, but much more seems unfeasible until GDOT starts to allow communities to treat their "State Routes" as "streets."

[Reid]

Ideally Peachtree would be a wide avenue with abundant street trees, street parking and separate rights-of-way for walkers and bikers, a la Champs Elysees or the Diagonal in Barcelona.

And who knows, if the city actually controlled its own major streets, perhaps it would be one day! Adding the streetcar, as is now discussed, would be the first step of a tremendous improvement.

Unfortunately, as Caleb mentioned, a hostile and uncomprehending state government agency, funded only by drivers (via gas taxes) has control over such key arteries as Peachtree, Buford Highway, Ponce De Leon and Moreland Avenue and has no interest in making Peachtree anything but a traffic sewer. I think that may be a bigger local issue than transit funding (which is certainly #2.)

I've been to this Kroger and felt the same frustration, but given that there's no street parking, no fixed-rail transit (unless you count Amtrak) and not many good pedestrian crossings of Peachtree from the nearby Ardmore Park neighborhood, locking that door unfortunately makes good business sense. But calling it the "back" is unforgiveable.

[Larry Felton Johnson]

Caleb and Reid, thanks for the input. I wondered what the pattern was. Maybe when I talk to Kroger I'll suggest a 9PM time plus a new sign that tells when that door is locked, and doesn't identify the rear parking lot as the "front of store".

As for the GDOT and urban state highways it's been evident to me for quite some time that the demeanor of the state highways through the intown areas is at least one of Atlanta's biggest problems, if not the biggest one.

It'd be nice if we could test the "kinder and gentler" face the GDOT has been putting on by putting forward proposals to transform all the major roads through Atlanta into dignified, pedestrian friendly roads. Maybe vie for future editions of the "Great Streets" book.